Police Court, before Mr. Burrows, sitting for the first time as Police Magistrate, Mr. J. W. H, Burgoyne, formerly. of Messrs. Dodwell, Carlill & No., was brought up on a charge of obtaining.from the. Russo-Chinese Bank the sum of Tls. 85,000 on false pretences, Mr. A. P. Stokes (Messrs. Johnson, Stokes, and Master) Appeared for the prosecution, and from his statement, and the evidence called, it apeared that the false pretences consisted in the accused: having obtained the sum stated un four godown orders, which he gave to the Bank, representing that the cargo mentioned in the -godown' receipts was in certain godowns, whereas during the period and up to the present time there' was not and had not been since any such cargo:' 'The witnesses examined consisted of Mr. M: Speelman, of the Russo-Ohinese' Bank, who proved that the accused obtained the sum of Tls. 85,000'on the representations; Mr.O. Mouser, of the firm'of Messrs; Dodwell and Company, Ld., and. two godown men, who were called to prove that Mr. Burgoyne did not have between the 26th of March and the 10th of October, 1898, the dates in question, or up to the present time, any such cargo as was referred to, which was represented as being skins and piece-goods.
In answer to the statutory caution the accused replied he had nothing to say beyond the fact that he was lity. Ho was then committed for trial. He was admitted to bail in the! sum of Tls. 10,000—himself in Tls. 5,000, and two other sureties in the sum of Tls. 2,500 each.
'The unusual hour at which the case was called on; vis., half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, and the subsequent difficulties in asoertdining' what actually took' place, ate" the" cause of "this case nob hi been' noticed on' Friday morning. Almost invariably "cases in the British Court are "heard''in' the "morning, and in the ordinary" course of their duties the newspaper representatives attend there then: In' the' event' of a case being set down. for the afternoon, which is very' seldom; an intimation to that effect has'~ before now been given, but, in the' present instance, nothing of the kind was done and the proceedings were not heard by" any newspaper. reporter. On Friday, when the matter had become more or less common talk, application was made, in the first instance, to Mr. Burrows, for information as to the proceeditigs, but beyond giving the name of accused, the bare charge, and the fact of the committal for trial, he declined to go, and Xir Nicholas Hannen on being seen supported him, saying that the depositions were in the hands of the Crown. Advocate. When it was pointed out that the sitting of the Court at such an hour was unusual and extremely likely to escape publicity, Mr. Burrows observed that it was within his discretion, under the Order in Council, to hold the enquiry with. closed doors, but he had not done so. But as the matter has been generally talked about in Shanghai, there was really no valid reason for secrecy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.